RESUMO
BACKGROUND/AIMS: Carcinogenesis is characterized by the abnormal regulation of cell cycle. The abnormal expression of the regulators of cell cycle may be related to the prognosis. Since the clinical significance of the expression of the three proteins in colorectal carcinomas is still controversial, we evaluated the prognostic value of the expression of cyclin E, p27 and mutant p53 in stage II colorectal cancer. METHODS: The expression levels of cyclin E, p27 and mutant p53 proteins in 41 patients with stage II colorectal carcinomas were analyzed by immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: In the univariate analysis, the level of CEA at diagnosis was associated with disease relapse. In the multivariate analysis, the clinicopathological variables such as age, gender, site of primary tumor, tumor size, state of tumor differentiation and preoperative plasma CEA level were not associated with disease relapse. When Kaplan-Meier survival curves were constructed to determine the prognosis, cyclin E, p27 and mutant p53 expressions did not predict poor prognosis. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggested that the expression of cyclin E, p27 and mutant p53 proteins did not predict the clinical outcome in the stage II colorectal carcinomas.